Nearly 25 pct of W.Va. water supply lost in 2012

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — State regulatory filings show nearly 25 percent of the water leaving West Virginia’s water plants disappeared even before it reached faucets last year.

About 17 billion gallons went unaccounted for in 2012, vanishing somewhere in a system of overflowing tanks and a maze of leaky pipes and gaskets.

The Charleston Gazette reports (http://bit.ly/17zO8uF) that nearly 65 percent of water utilities in the state are not compliant with the state Public Service Commission’s standards for acceptable amounts of water loss.

The state’s largest water utility West Virginia American Water’s rate of unaccounted-for water was 28 percent in fiscal 2012.

While the lost water is certainly costing West Virginians money, water utilities must weigh the cost of the lost water with the cost of making repairs to aging water systems.